Tofugu Comments - Latest Comments in Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

Guest — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:03:21 -0000

Studying isn't easy but if you keep at it you will reap the reward. Everyone should keep learning and not stop.

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

Guest — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 01:37:03 -0000

Don't stop learning people. Just keep at it and you'll get it eventually.

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

koichi — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:58:54 -0000

I would say no to that one. It would be like reading a novel in watered down LOLcat speak in order to learn English.

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

Jon — Sun, 25 May 2008 14:08:48 -0000

Do you think these novels, due to their simpler nature, would be good reading practice for Japanese learners?

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

Rebekah — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:51:04 -0000

I don't even have a cell phone, I'm so far behind.

@Lonna: IDK my BFF, Jill?
I find the commercials foolish, but they're funny to watch.

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

Fredy — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:43:51 -0000

Nice article. Yeah, Japanese phones are advanced and USA's companies need to step up. That's kinda crazy about the novels. When are full feature films gonna be made on the phones? haha. Iphone3.0 "edit your videos and background music". That will be pretty intense right there.

Also, what happened to the layout?

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

Ramaja — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 21:57:04 -0000

@Viet
True, very true: unless a company choses to take risks, nothing is going to move on the market.
There is something that has to be considered anyway, which is "competition state on the market" by different providers. When one of the actors choses to take a risk, the other companies will wait and see how the business delevops, before acting accordingly. It is up to the end user to chose the destiny of a given offer, and if they react well, the other Cell providers will have to take conuntermeasure to avoid loosing market share.
Another issue is up to the country you live in: USA is not japan, with large distances which need to be covered for a functional Cell phone system (with a low number of access, menaing low incomes): UMTS (3G) cells (same as in japan) offer much in term of services, but cover smaller areas compared with GPRS/2.5G meaning they are expensive for a country like USA.
Then it comes to the rules: in a country like Italy, where in spite of all antitrust laws, there is space for manouveing for cell companies and where privatization of state Phone company led to an umballanced system, we just have 4 true cell phone operators available (one of which works on 3G band only) meaning that, without a willing control authority, such company tend to drive a sort underground cartel, bringing very similar offer and prices to the costumers. Then don't need to hurry up because none of the four society will "take the risk" we were talking about: market share allows all four of them to prosper meaning they don't have interest in waging war each others.
Last but not least, risks may get companies in trouble. We have seen that with NTT DoCoMo, which tried pushing 3G in Japan with a network not compatibile with the old 2.5G system.
AU/KDDI on the contrary, having entered later the market, was able to introduce a new network which allowed user to roam between KDDI 2.5G and 3G on the same cellphone (AU and NTT networks are not compatibile between them).
DoCoMo survived thanks to his huge ammount of old clients but it took a serious hit anyway.
Vodafone Japan on the contrary was pushed out of the market because of it's too prudent attitude on new tecnologies till it sold it's share of the japan service to Softbank.
What really pushes the Japan Forward in technology is, IMO, about how ready are the end user to accept new offers: the fact that someone can even "think" about writing a book on T9 keyboard is something that shoud not be underestimate. Cell phone companies know this and know thay got to move foprward just to Keep their share of the market (Remember what happenend to Vodafone Japan).
In Italy this never happened, with people content of direct phone call and SMS, while in USA many got blinded by the WiFi chimera which is good if you are inside a building (where you have usually something else to do) but won't work on true mobility as 3G does.
For Cell companies it was convenient to let fast data access systems manged by privates, but this left the whole Cell phone network 10 years behind Japan (WiMax not even being considered in near future, nor HDSPA, nor HUSPA).

Something that should be considered as well is how much time the Japanese spend on mobility: many people every day move hundred of Km to get at work and then back home, most of them by train or tube: They need to move light and without low encumbrance and the Cellphone is all they usually get with them. Here is the high demand for TV broadcasting, Internet and even E-Books so that they can kill time they spend on pubblic transport.
This is something that does not happens Here in Euroep, nor in the USA, where most people prefer to move by Car, reducing the time they spend idling compared to a typical Japanese employee.

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

Asagao — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 20:59:11 -0000

Hmm... I'm hoping that they come out with the flying car soon. If people can write novels on cell phones, then I want my flying car!

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

Viet — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:27:30 -0000

@Ramaja

That is true. The culture among the end users have influence on what is being provided and thus the provider (supposably) accommodates to those needs by providing the technical services. But ultimately in the end it is up to the provider to provide those services as they are the ones that have the resources to execute it.

It just seems to me the Japanese cell providers are willing to take more risks with random services like coupon scanners and built-in credit cards. I honestly don't think there was a demand for these services, but they took the risk and the market accepted it. In the US the providers are very conservative.

It really depends on how you look at it I suppose.

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

Ramaja — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:59:21 -0000

I dont live in US but in Italy: our cellphone network is probably comparable with the one in Japan and we have possibly the largest base of users in the world, looking at man/phone rate, yet, our cell services are poor, way behind many other countries, becauser of a mix of provider's greed, ignorance of the end users and foul pricing.

So far we are one of the few countries without a decent data flat rate and internet options on cellphones are so weird to make anyone wonder what the hell the provider was thinkinng on creating them.

Believe me: it is not about technical services but it's about technology culture among the end users :-|

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

lonna — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:29:01 -0000

Wow~ I love my cellphone but I would never write a novel on it! After sending one text my fingers hurt! i can't imagine a novel being that fantastic being written with a bunch of emotions. Sigh, I can't stand the way people abbreviate things....
Has anyone heard the commercials in America on the radio for cellphone providers, were they have the teenage girl who speaks in 'texting' code and they need a translator for it? ::Barf::

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

Sarra — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 03:44:35 -0000

I hate cellphones !! heheh
I think it is good for calling only , But it is nice to write a novel in a new way and with a different level of the language BUT we should keep the original language I mean the RIGHT one

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

Viet — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:55:33 -0000

I want a Japanese cellphone like the next guy, but lets be realistic here.

Even if you do get a Japanese phone to work on the US cell network, it'll just be as shitty as the US phones. Heck, it'll probably be worst, since most of the features touted won't work at all.

All the features that make it better depends SOLELY on the cell phone provider. They support fast upload/download speeds because of the wireless spectrum + technology provided by the cell service (DoCoMo, Softbank, etc). Same goes for the coupon scanners and TV tuners. These are provided by the cell service companies. The framework is in place and this allows the cell phone companies to make their god-like phones. Maybe we should start wishing that companies like AT&T;, T-Mobile, etc provide services equal to that of the Japanese cell carriers. Then and only then we might get phones that are on the same level. The cell phone companies are limited to whats provided to them.

So the question "iPhone or Japanese phone?" should be revised to "AT&T; or DoCoMo?" I'd choose DoCoMo.

Oh funny fact, DoCoMo owns a sizable share in AT&T.; I wish they could do something about the laughable cell service here.

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

koichi — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 23:57:17 -0000

@kevinwhat
Although the iphone is ridiculously awesome, Japanese cell phones still beat out the American ones (including the iphone) when it comes to features, speed, and convenience. iphone is great and all, but when it comes down to it I'd rather have an equally priced Japanese phone instead.

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

Viet — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 23:12:50 -0000

That T616 Sony Ericsson is as big as her head! Yeah, I'm a cell phone whore :(

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

クリストフアー — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:40:45 -0000

@ Kevinnwhat

You sure like to say the word "$#!t" haha anyways...

I envy the Japanese and their advanced mobile technology. Too bad we're not able to use their phones over here in America... 哀れ　(~_~;)

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

Kevinnwhat — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:26:02 -0000

sry to post again, but is the iphone basically shit compared to japanese phones?

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

Kevinnwhat — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:22:56 -0000

holy shit, thats ridiculous. I cant even imagine writing a book on my cell phone...wow

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

nanci — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:52:03 -0000

I really don't like the though of this either, sounds worse then those 'hip' books that take place over msn chats. But to write that much on a phone, wow. (I want to see said emoticons, I hear about them all the damn time)

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

Chimiko — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:27:49 -0000

I can't imagine what it's like to write a novel on your cellphone. I 've just begun using the cellphone recently so I wouldn't know.

Re: Half of Japanese Authors have Meaty thumbs

DreamCager — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:20:19 -0000

This is hillarious... but also very sad. *shudders*

I like writing the way it is, and reading books as books, so this is way over my head. I can imagine a lot more of my literature-challenged friends liking this movement, however...